Down in the cafeteria the three of them got coffees and found a table.
“So what’s your professional opinion?” Yolie asked her new sergeant. “Is there a case here?”
Toni took a nail file out of a jacket pocket and went to work on her fingernails with controlled fury. “Oh, absolutely, Loo.”
“And who are you liking for it?”
“The man himself. It’s so totally obvious. Tyrone Grantham’s wife is massively pregnant. Her hot little sister’s available. And he has a history of getting rough with women. Naturally, Kinitra’s terrified to say anything. So she made up that story about Lonnie in the hope that we’d back off and let it drop. Tyrone Grantham has been raping her, no question. I say we go right at him.”
“The man’s an NFL superstar,” Yolie pointed out.
Toni’s eyes gleamed eagerly. “And if we nail his balls to the wall, it’ll be huge.”
A Tedone to the bone, Des reflected. They were pub sluts one and all.
“Slow it down,” Yolie cautioned her. “There are a lot of other possibilities. And even if it is Da Beast, we still have Kinitra’s privacy to respect.”
“Sure thing, Loo,” Toni said, working that nail file back and forth, her big breasts jiggling inside her unbuttoned blouse. It was downright dizzying.
Des sipped her coffee and said, “Lonnie Berryman ought to be easy enough to run down. Assuming he exists, that is.”
“True that,” Yolie acknowledged. “Sergeant, go back to the headmaster’s house and see if you can find the man through the University of Georgia Athletic Department. If he’s real then get him on the phone and hear what he has to say. Who knows, maybe we’ll get freaky lucky.”
Toni frowned. “Freaky lucky as in?…”
“As in maybe he’s been visiting his good friend Raymond Harris in Glen Cove these past few days. And maybe he was at that party last night. If so, have the Glen Cove P.D. pick him up and hold him.”
“On it, Loo. Anything else?”
“We need a guest list.”
“Talk to Clarence,” Des advised. “It was by invite only-until the girls’ father, Calvin, let in pretty much anyone who showed up with a hottie. That’s what Trooper Olsen told me. He was on the gate to keep the media at bay. Clarence and Calvin both have priors, by the way. Got their sheets in my ride.”
“Reach out to the media people,” Yolie told Toni. “The tabloid outlets won’t cooperate but the local TV news channels will. You need a look at their footage of who went in and out. Run the license plates of anybody and everybody who was parked nearby. And if you’re able to download a photo of this Lonnie, run it past Trooper Olsen. Maybe he’ll remember seeing him.”
“You got it, Loo. Is he cute?”
“Is who cute?”
“Trooper Olsen.”
Yolie glared at her. “I’m sorry, did I just wander into a slumber party?”
“Come on, it’s just us girls. Can’t we vibe? My sisters are married. My cousins are married. They’re into babies. I’m into violent crimes.”
“That’s the job. If you don’t like it, get out now.”
“I love it, Loo. But I’m a first-of. There’s never, ever been a Tedone woman doing what I’m doing. I have no one to talk to. Sure, my cousin Rico counsels me-”
“Um, okay, this is scary on so many different levels,” Des said.
“What do you mean by that?” Toni wondered, filing, filing.
“Oh, nothing. I used to be the one who counseled him. You saying that makes me feel old, that’s all.”
“He really admires you. Thinks you’re the smartest person he ever worked with.” Toni glanced at Yolie and said, “You he’s just plain afraid of.”
Yolie watched Toni file her nails. “Do you have to do that right now?”
“It helps me think.”
“It’s driving me crazy.”
Toni made a face. “Whatever. I’m going outside for a shmoke. Feel free to talk about me behind my back.” She got up and marched out of the cafeteria.
Yolie heaved a sigh. “I fantasized for years about making lieutenant. I finally make it. And what do they do? They give me a Tedone with ta-tas.”
“Yeah, I noticed them. Couldn’t help it.”
“They call her Toni the Tiger at the headmaster’s house. I’m supposed to be seasoning her.”
“She’s not a complete idiot.”
“Not a slacker either,” Yolie had to admit. “She does the donkey work and then some. What, you think I should go easier on her?”
“No, no. Do what you have to do. Although you could talk to her about that blouse.”
Yolie let out a laugh. “You hate the Brass City mob even more than I do. Are you getting soft on me?”
“Not a chance. But I know what it’s like to be a woman on this job.”
“And I don’t?”
“She’s one of us, Yolie.”
“She’s not one of us. She’s a Tedone.”
“Sure, sure. Whatever you say.”
Yolie sipped her coffee in brooding silence for a moment. “ Something has been happening to that little cutie upstairs. That doesn’t mean we can build a case out of it. But I’m with you. I’ll chalk it up as a teaching tool if my captain reams me. Who else should we be looking at?”
“Tyrone likes Stewart Plotka for it.”
“The cat who’s suing him for that Dave amp; Buster’s beat down?”
Des nodded. “Plotka claims that Tyrone raped his girlfriend, Katie. Could be that raping Kinitra is his idea of payback. He is a sniveling creep. And he’s been grabbing pub outside the Grantham place lately. And we found a hole in Tyrone’s brand new fence. Plotka could have snuck in last night and attacked her. It does play. You’ll want to establish his whereabouts down to the minute. He and his high-priced lawyer have rooms at the Saybrook Point Inn.”
“Who else?”
“Tyrone has had problems with his next door neighbor, Justy Bond.”
“As in ‘Just Ask Justy?’”
“That’s him. He has been nothing but pissed off ever since Tyrone moved in. Hates his fence, his dock, his boat, his music…”
“Let me guess-his pigment, too?”
Des smiled at her. “There’s definite animosity there. I’m also hearing that Justy beats up on his women. His son, June, keeps a sailboat tied up at Justy’s dock. Sleeps out on the thing. Maybe June heard something down there last night. I can sound him out. Or stay out of it. Whatever you want.”
“Girl, I’m partnered with a rug rat. What do you think I want?”
Des also told her about the beating that Clarence had given Winston Lash for biting Asia’s booty. And how it was Winston who’d tipped off Mitch to the hole in the fence.
“Let’s hear more about this Winston. Could he be our attacker?”
“He’s a seventy-two-year-old dementia patient. Kinitra’s on the small side but she’s still a strong, healthy girl. She could have handled him.”
“You sure about that?”
“I’m not sure about anything,” Des replied. “Except that Toni isn’t wrong. Tyrone himself has to be considered the prime suspect. It fits his profile.”
Yolie studied Des across the table. “You like him for it or not?”
“That all depends on which him you’re talking about. He told me he’s trying to change his badass ways. And he’s plenty persuasive-right up until he loses his temper. Once that happens anything’s possible.”
“Who else lives there with him?”
“Rondell, his kid brother. He takes care of the man’s financial affairs. Also worships the ground Kinitra walks
